


Confusion Is My Middle Name

by Semper_Sehun



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Pining, Sexuality Crisis, awkward gym thirsting, side seho, the no homo vibes are strong in this, wingman Baekhyun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-27
Updated: 2019-11-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:34:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21576136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Semper_Sehun/pseuds/Semper_Sehun
Summary: Maybe Chanyeol wasn't really bi, maybe Chanyeol was just Jongin-sexual.
Relationships: Kim Jongin | Kai/Park Chanyeol
Comments: 24
Kudos: 200





	Confusion Is My Middle Name

**Author's Note:**

  * For [potslooshi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/potslooshi/gifts).



> This is a really quick and short fic for the bestest Chris out there! This is for you finishing your awfully long exam and your semester, you truly deserve a break! To more wonderful Skype sessions and fic discussions with you! I love you, favourite internet friend! ❤️
> 
> To everyone else: I hope you enjoy this fic too! It's my first time writing Chankai so I hope it is somewhat authentic!

"He's wearing the tight jeans again today."

Chanyeol’s eyes flitted to the other side of the cafeteria. There Jongin was, currently in line to grab himself some lunch while Chanyeol was seated at one of the tables with Baekhyun, two bowls of steaming beef noodle soup in front of them.

"And you're wearing the  _ 'I-wanna-bury-my-dick-in-his-ass-again  _ stare today _. _ " Baekhyun snorted and slurped up more noodles than Chanyeol thought could fit into his mouth at once. Sometimes, he wondered how Baekhyun got such a pretty girlfriend like Taeyeon if he behaved like that.

"Don't be so vulgar." Chanyeol’s cheeks flushed and he looked around as if he was worried that someone could listen in on them. In the large cafeteria, nobody was paying attention to them though.

"Don't say it's not true." Baekhyun raised a brow, noodles dangling from his mouth.

Chanyeol cleared his throat. "... I'm not gay.”

"Yeah right. You're Jongin-sexual." Baekhyun almost choked on his noodles.

"Exactly!"

For more than half a year now, Chanyeol had been nursing this tiny crush on Jongin. It had taken him most of that time to even accept that he was somewhat attracted to Jongin, but after Baekhyun pointed out that his continuous comments of how cute and also good-looking Jongin was, Chanyeol had understood that his interest in Jongin was possibly a little more than just friendship.

However, it was still hard for him to accept that he possibly wanted to get into a dude’s pants. Chanyeol wasn’t homophobic, but he somehow had never considered himself dating a man and until Jongin, only women had caught his interest. But then Jongin had walked into one of his courses last semester and had happened to sit down next to him because it was the only empty seat, and wow, maybe Chanyeol hadn’t been able to stop stealing glances at him.

At first, it had scared him a little. It still did if he was being honest, and Chanyeol hadn’t really found a solution for that yet. Especially since Jongin had been the only guy that had caught his interest, Chanyeol didn’t quite know how to handle this. He’d tried watching gay porn, and it hadn’t been half bad but it had only really gotten interesting when he found a video with the title twink getting fucked that included a guy that reminded him of Jongin’s physique and maybe that had gotten him just a little riled up…

"You should ask him out." Baekhyun pointed out when he caught Chanyeol’s eyes wandering in the direction of Jongin once again. He was chatting with Sehun and Junmyeon, two of Jongin’s close friends, and they were about to order their food.

Just at the thought of asking Jongin out this openly, Chanyeol started feeling nervous.

"When he's got all his friends lurking around him? Certainly not."

Baekhyun shot him a surprised look. "So you'd actually be willing to ask him out on a date though?"

"I mean..." Chanyeol started, taken by surprise by the question, but he was even more surprised when he realized that Baekhyun had a point there. "I guess so? It's just having dinner together or coffee. Totally chill."

He sounded a lot more confident with his answer than he felt, and Baekhyun saw right through his bullshitting.

"What if he wanted to hold hands? Or kiss you?"

Just at the thought, Chanyeol’s ears started to burn again, competing with the bright red of his newly dyed hair. He’d lost a bet with Jongdae so he had to dye it red and at first he’d felt pretty awkward about it, but then Jongin had complimented it in class and Chanyeol had suddenly felt his self-esteem levels rise immensely.

"You're going into detail already, I haven't worked that out yet." He muttered, staring at his noodle soup so that he didn’t have to look at his friend.

"I can't believe you."

Ignoring Baekhyun’s statement, Chanyeol stirred the noodles around in the bowl. "Also, who says he'd say yes?"

"Chanyeol... He's gay and he keeps stealing glances at you whenever we're at the gym. Chances are high that he'll say yes."

The gym. Probably the place where Chanyeol had to hide accidental boners more than he used to in class at school back when he’d hit puberty, and the sole reason for it was Kim Jongin. About three months ago, Jongin and Sehun had transferred to the gym Baekhyun and Chanyeol trained at, and while Chanyeol had been ecstatic about it at first, he’d soon realized how challenging it had been for him to concentrate on his workout when Jongin was around because suddenly, he wanted to make sure that he looked good while doing bench presses and that was pretty hard when his face had scrunched up with exertion.

"But Sehun is already around him. What if they're dating?" Chanyeol had thought about that option more often than he’d like to admit and whenever he thought about it, something in his gut twisted uncomfortably.

"Didn't you know that Sehun and Junmyeon are dating?"

Baekhyun’s words took a moment to fully process in his brain, but then he gaped.

"Junmyeon? And Sehun?" He asked, trying to figure out if Baekhyun was messing with him. The other seemed very serious though, and Chanyeol wondered how this had completely missed him. "How come I didn't know that? Junmyeon? And Sehun? Really?"

"Why does it surprise you?" Baekhyun asked, looking awfully smug at having caught Chanyeol off-guard.

"Junmyeon is... I thought..." Chanyeol started, but then trailed off, not even really sure what he was trying to get at.

"Surprise, Yeol, not everyone is straight. And you probably aren't either."

"Baekhyun-" he was about to protest when suddenly two figures stepped in front of them. When Chanyeol looked up, his heart started pounding in his chest like crazy.

There stood Jongin, in all his glory with his soft brown hair and beautiful skin, cute smile and bear sweater. Next to him stood Sehun and Junmyeon, looking impassive while Jongin beamed.

“Can we join you?” Jongin motioned at the empty seats next to them. Both Chanyeol and Baekhyun nodded, quickly taking their bags from the seats so the others could sit down. Junmyeon and Sehun settled down on Baekhyun’s side of the table while Jongin got comfortable next to Chanyeol.

"Hey. How's it going?” Baekhyun started up a conversation with Junmyeon, but Jongin was focused on Chanyeol.

"Hi!" He smiled at him. He had the same beef noodle soup in front of him as Chanyeol. "Hyung, are you alright, you look a little red?" He asked as he picked up his spoon, looking slightly amused by Chanyeol’s red face.

"Yeah it's fine, just swallowed some water the wrong way and choked."

"When Jongin swallows something else, he usually chokes too." Sehun, who’d been quiet until then, grinned.

"Sehun!" Jongin flushed, and the pink tint to his cheeks looked kind of pretty. Chanyeol was back to staring.

"What." Sehun snorted. "Junmyeon thought it was funny."

"Junmyeon also thinks dad jokes are funny so I don't see how that's in your favour." Jongin muttered back, fully focusing on his soup now to forget about the embarrassment.

They all broke out into laughter, and Junmyeon didn’t even look too offended. After that, it was easy to build up a conversation and by the time they’d all finished their lunch, Chanyeol had gotten over the initial cardiac arrest that had been the result of having Jongin sit next to him.

"I didn't know you two were dating." Chanyeol blurted out when Junmyeon and Sehun talked about a restaurant they’d been to the previous weekend. As soon as the words had left his mouth, Chanyeol felt as if he’d said something offensive but he hadn’t even meant it that way.

"Oh?" Junmyeon asked, looking very unfazed by that. "Well I guess now you know." Next to him, Sehun hummed.

"You're so chill about it."

"Shouldn't we be?" Sehun asked, wrapping an arm around Junmyeon to pull him a little closer. "I mean it's not like we kiss each other right in front of a group of old dudes. That would probably not end that well."

"Makes sense..." Chanyeol nodded, suddenly feeling like the biggest dick ever. "Sorry if that came off rude, I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine, Chanyeol." Junmyeon gave him his ‘ _ understanding-mom _ ’ look. “We've all been there."

"What do you-" Chanyeol started but then Sehun and Junmyeon were getting up already, shouldering their bags.

"Anyways, we'll be off. I'll see you at home later, Jongin. Bye guys!" They said their goodbyes, and for a moment Chanyeol was scared that he offended them after all but then Junmyeon explained that they had to go to a drop-in session with a lecturer for a project and that they were already running late.

"See you later." Jongin smiled and waved goodbye, turning back to Chanyeol as soon as Junmyeon and Sehun had disappeared out of their view. "And you really didn't know they were dating?" He asked Chanyeol, actually sounding surprised. "I feel like everyone knew."

"I really didn't." Chanyeol was starting to feel like a dumbass and he just wished that they could change the topic. Apparently, his mood had reflected in the tone of his words because Jongin gave him a worried look.

"Does it bother you?"

"Me?" Chanyeol asked, wondering how much worse this conversation could turn. "What? No." He vehemently shook his head. "What makes you think that way?"

Jongin tilted his head a little. "You seemed so shocked."

Okay, maybe Jongin had a point. Opposite of them, Baekhyun was following the conversation with poorly concealed interest.

"I don't know... They're so casual about it?" Chanyeol started but instantly corrected himself. "Sorry, that made me sound like a dick."

Jongin laughed awkwardly. "Well, should they not be casual about it?"

"Oh, of course but-" Chanyeol was pretty sure that he was making everyone feel uncomfortable and he somehow needed to pull his head out of his ass but he was just having a very hard time.

It was in that moment that Baekhyun decided to take matters into his hands. Later, Chanyeol would feel thankful, but right then, he felt nothing more than the desire to murder Baekhyun in the most painful way.

"The thing is,” Baekhyun started, wearing a smug grin. “Chanyeol is struggling with coming to terms that he thinks you're hot and he can't bring himself to ask you out. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm meeting up with Taeyeon at the library. Chanyeol, you can thank me later."

With that, Baekhyun grabbed his bag and tablet and was already halfway up before Chanyeol could even begin forming words.

"Baekhyun, I'm gonna-" He started but then Baekhyun was already lost in the crowd of people, queuing to return his tablet. Chanyeol wished he had something more threatening than a spoon in his hand and he wondered if he would get a house ban from the cafeteria if he were to throw his noodle bowl at Baekhyun’s head.

"Is that true?" Jongin’s words pulled Chanyeol out of his revenge fantasies to which he’d fled to avoid thinking about the disaster waiting to be unfolded.

"Hm?" He mumbled, staring at the table. He just couldn’t bring himself to look at Jongin, his ears back to competing with his hair in the fight of who was the best tomato look-alike.

"Is it true that you're too shy to ask me out?" Jongin asked. When Chanyeol forced himself to meet Jongin’s eyes, he wasn’t sure why he was surprised by the fact that the other wasn’t weirded out by the revelation.

"I mean- I'm not- I just think that..." He stumbled over his words and decided that it was probably better to shut up than to make a fool out of himself.

"I didn't know you could be so cute." Jongin’s words hit him like a brick. "I always thought you were kind of a fuckboy to be honest."

"I am very cute, okay! I mean, I can be."

The thing was, Chanyeol usually wasn’t that shy and awkward when it came to flirting. When it was a cute girl that he was trying to impress, he usually knew exactly what to do or say to make them blush. With Jongin, however, his brain just decided to temporarily lower his IQ to dangerous levels.

“I believe that now.” Jongin grinned and Chanyeol wondered if this was some kind of progress.

“Yeah?”

Jongin nodded. “Yeah. Like, I did notice your attempts to catch my interest at the gym a few times but I wasn’t sure if you were just trying to be a bro showing off your biceps or if you were actively… trying to flirt?”

Chanyeol wanted to groan, very vivid images of him doing biceps curls right where Jongin was stretching flashing before his eyes.

“You really noticed that? I’m so embarrassed.”

“Oh, so you did it on purpose then.” Jongin laughed. “You  _ are _ cute.”

“Cute enough to go out for some coffee with me?” Chanyeol asked. He’d purposefully avoided the word date, but of course Jongin had to put him on the spot as if he’d read his mind.

“As a date?” He asked, a smirk playing on his lips. It shouldn’t be allowed to look that good on anybody.

Taking a deep breath, Chanyeol tried to calm all the doubts welling up inside of him that were dusted with more toxic masculinity that was good for him, and he nodded. “Yeah, I’d love that.”

“Awesome.” Jongin grinned and sent Chanyeol such a sweet smile that Chanyeol wondered how he was going to survive a whole coffee date with Jongin without dying from diabetes.

It was then that Chanyeol realized that maybe he wasn’t only Jongin-sexual but possibly also very Jongin-romantic.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked the story and that it was entertaining, although it was short! Let's just hope chankai had a nice, possibly less awkward date, right?
> 
> Chris, I know I could have probably made this more dudebro-like, but I hope that you still like it! ❤️
> 
> As usual, you can find a moodboard for this fic [here](https://twitter.com/SehunSemper/status/1199606780730527744?s=19). I would love it if you let me know if you liked my first attempt at Chankai by leaving Kudos or comments ❤️


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